Doctor Who S2 E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Well”

One of the wonderful things about the Disney + series, Doctor Who, is that this character can be in any kind of type of story needed. Last week we had the meta episode with the animated character. This week there was a space sci-fi/horror story with a lot of tension and mystery. Doctor Who can do whatever you need.

This week was tremendous. The Doctor and Belinda showed up in a space military operation on an unknown planet in the distant future. They encounter a mysterious force that stands behind a person. It is connected to a story that Doctor Who had told previous when David Tennent was the Doctor. It was fun when Ncuti Gatwa said, in character, that he had been on this planet before, and we get a flash from that episode with Tennent.

I truly did not know what was going to happen with this story as there were just a bunch of characters on edge. The show also did a great job of building these side characters quickly so I felt something for them when they were in jeopardy. It was not just a bunch of cannon fodder (though there were some of those here too).

The episode continued to build the overarching mystery of the season with the question about why the Tardis can not return to earth in 2025. These people in the distant future had never heard of the earth or the human race even though The Doctor indicated that the earth should have been known in the time. I do like how they keep planting those seeds even if it is not the main thrust of the episode. Oh and Mrs. Flood is there again, just taunting us with her continual presence.

I am such a fan of this version of the Doctor so far. Ncuti Gatwa is such a strong performer and seems to have chemistry with everyone. He is emotional and powerful, oozing a confidence that is shaken over and again. I have not seen many other versions of Doctor Who, but this one had made me a fan.

The Legend of Ochi

Posted on by

A24 is an active and extremely busy movie studio, releasing all kinds of different movies. One of the newest releases from the studio is a fantasy/adventure that plays like a fairy tail in The Legend of Ochi.

Shot on location in Romania, The Legend of Ochi looks beautiful and the creatures known as the ochi are amazingly constructed in one of the best uses of practical effects in years. The creatures, in particular our little lead character, are marvelous and shows that you can still create something stunning and effective without a bunch of CGI.

According to IMBD, “A young girl named Yuri is raised to fear the reclusive forest creatures known as the ochi. However, when she discovers a baby ochi left behind by its pack, she embarks on a perilous journey to reunite the creature with its family. As Yuri ventures deeper into the forest, she faces dangerous challenges and learns valuable lessons about courage, friendship, and the importance of protecting nature.”

The performance of young actor Helena Zengel is very impressive as Yuri and she effectively carries the bulk of this film on her shoulders. She does an admirable job interacting with the puppet ochi as it travels around on her back and in her company.

There are two well known faces involved in the film. Willem Dafoe played Yuri’s father Maxim and Finn Wolfhard is Petro, a boy who is taken in by her father. Dafoe is his usually wonderful self as this father whose anger about his life is transferred into his hatred for these ochi creatures. He trained these children that are in his care as a military unit to hunt the ochi.

I did like the background story of Maxim and I thought his arc of the movie was very soldi. He had some great scenes with Emily Watson, who played Dasha, Yuri’s absent mother.

There are some weird things happening here, but it had that ET feel combined with a A24 horror film. The Legend of Ochi was a fun film with a nice story.

3.8 stars

The Accountant 2

Posted on by

The first Accountant movie with Ben Affleck was fine, but not one of my favorite movies. I never thought it needed a sequel so when the announcement of The Accountant 2 was made, it did not make my list of anticipated movies.

I do believe that I liked this movie more than I did the original, but there are plenty of flaws here. Honestly, there is only one thing that made this an enjoyable time at the movie theater: The relationship between Be Affleck’s Christian Wolff and his brother, Braxton, played by Jon Bernthal.

According to IMDB, “When her former boss is killed by unknown assassins, Treasury Agent Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) is forced to contact Christian Wolff (Affleck) to solve the murder. With the help of his estranged but highly lethal brother Brax (Jon Bernthal), Chris applies his brilliant mind and less-than-legal methods to piece together the unsolved puzzle. As they get closer to the truth, the trio draw the attention of some of the most ruthless killers alive — all intent on putting a stop to their search.“

I have a definite idea that had Jon Bernthal not been in this movie, I would not have liked it. I did not find the plot to be engaging, and it was fairly ham-fisted. The action was fine, but nothing that we haven’t seen before.

The key to this movie was the exceptional interaction between two actors at the top of their game. Affleck and Bernthal had remarkable chemistry and every moment they were on screen together was electric. Especially the scenes where they are not shooting things up. It almost had an action buddy cop type of feel for The Accountant 2, and I was here for that.

It did feel too long, but the scenes with the two leads really pulled this forward. I should also shout out the work of Cynthia Addai-Robinson, who made for a solid third in the story.

Overall, I thought this was a solid action movie with a great lead pairing between two exceptional actors. These actors elevated the material around them to a level where I found myself engaged instead of checked out.

3.7 stars

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

Posted on by

April 23

So Diamond stuck it to us again this week, so no Marvel books this week. But it is a pretty decent week for DC and Image so we do have some choices.\

Bronze Medalist

Universal Monsters: The Mummy #2

Cover art by Faith Eric Hicks & Lee Loughridge

Love this design of the mummy in the background with the earth colors all around it. These Universal Monsters books have been solid with covers.

Silver Medalist

Dust to Dust #5

Cover art by J.G. Jones

Dust to Dust has has had some excellent covers too. JG Jones is a very solid artist and the realistic cover. Part of the standout of this book has been the coloring of the covers.

Gold Medalist

Out of Alcatraz #2

Cover art by Tyler Crook

This cover is a beautifully designed book. A theme of this week books would be coloring as the orange color on the cream background. Looks great, really stands out among the other books.

The Studio S1 E6

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Pediatric Oncologist”

Matt is dating a doctor. A pediatric oncologist, to be precise, and she invited him to a fancy black tie fundraiser with other doctors.

Things do not go well.

Matt agrees to go even though, as the studio head, he has to get a trailer for Johnny Knoxville’s new satire about projectile diarrhea approved.

This led to a conflict between Matt and the doctors who were with his girlfriend. They were looking down on his work, treating it as if it was not important. Matt disagreed, claiming his work as “art.”

While it is difficult to compare movie making to trying to cure cancer, these doctors were extremely dismissive of Matt and looked down their collective noses at him and what he does for a living.

This led to some extremely funny moments. My favorite one was when Matt outbid the doctors at his table for a gold trip to Ireland, even though he does not like golf. I actually cheered for Matt when he tossed out his winning bid at the last second.

I have been enjoying this Apple TV + comedy every week. Again, it feels so very meta, but has some very strong themes.

2073

Posted on by

I came across this on MAX and I thought it would be an interesting sci-fi movie. It is not.

I’m not really sure what it is. It is some kind of weird blend of documentary, post-apocalyptic wasteland and history lesson.

It is also one of the most depressing movie I have seen in a long time.

We are shown Ghost (Samantha Morton) from the year 2073, who spends nearly her whole time on screen doing a voice-over. There is not much of a narrative structure to the 2073 story. Ghost tried to determine how the earth got to this point.

At that point, it goes back in time, using real life news footage to try and explain how the world fell into such a horrendous future. It looked at real life politicians, world leaders, AI, and the billionaires, blending them into the structure of the story that leads to the destruction of this movies’ fictional future.

This British docudrama feels much like those films made by Dinesh D’Souza, except from the other side of the aisle. It seems like there is more fearmongering in this film so, even in the manner in which it may be calling out important pieces, it undermines its own argument.

And the sci-fi section is just not compelling enough to balance out the news reel footage. The filmmakers took a big swing, but, unfortunately, this does not work. I found this to be depressing, and, worst of all, not entertaining. Even those movies that are meant to show the downside of the human condition have to be a compelling watch. This just is not.

1 star

Light & Magic S2 E1

Posted on by

“Are We Ready For This?”

The Light & Magic documentary series got an unexpected second season as it showed up with three episodes on Disney +. I enjoyed the initial season of this documentary, so I figured this would be a good series to add to the watchlist.

The story of Industrial Light & Magic, or ILM, is an fascinating tale of movie making and the way they took the business on an entirely new path.

This was around the time that George Lucas was preparing to create the prequels, the infamous films that were the pre-story of Star Wars, featuring Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker. Lucas did not want to start work on prequels until he believed that IBM was ready to create the digital work that he thought the movies needed.

The beginning of the doc included discussion on Caspar and Dragonheart. The episode indicated that once Lucas saw Dragonheart, he knew ILM was ready for The Phantom Menace.

They spent a good chunk of the doc on the creation of Jar Jar Binks. One of the most divisive characters in Star Wars, Lucas believed that Jar Jar was one of the most important pieces of the puzzle and that the film would not work if they did not nail Jar Jar. Such an interesting comment for a character that so many Star Wars fans hated.

They also discussed the pod racing scenes and how George saw these.

Whether I was a fan of these movies or not, the technology created and used on these films revolutionized the industry without a doubt. I am intrigued to hear the stories of the making of the prequels moving forward.

All three episodes of this documentary dropped on Disney +.

Wrestlemania 41 Weekend: The Raw After Mania

Posted on by

The Wrestlemania weekend continued tonight on Monday Night Raw, which has become known as the Raw After Mania. It is a night where they reset stories, debuts some new talents and have a general amount of chaos.

John Cena spoke about his plans to leave with the belt after his final 27 dates scheduled. I’m still not sure how this was going to “ruin wrestling” as he claimed. We saw the next opponent for Cena as Randy Orton gave him a RKO out of nowhere.

Rusev made his return after five years and attacked the Alpha Academy, who were getting ready to take on the New Day. Rusev looked really great.

Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez regained the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship by defeating Lyra Valkyria and Becky Lynch. Afterwards, Becky flipped out and attacked Lyra. Did not seem to be the same person who went to the press conference last night after night two with her daughter on her lap.

Iyo Sky came out to celebrate her World title defense and she was interrupted by NXT Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer, who wanted to congratulate Iyo and fight her. Then we got an impromptu match between them. They are two of the best women wrestlers in the world and they were having an awesome match until they were disrupted by Roxanne Perez and Giulia, resulting in a DQ.

Dirty Dom, the new IC Champion, pinned Penta. Yes, I typed that. There was interference from a returning JD McDonagh, but still. Of course, I would have hated to see how the crowd would have turned on Penta if the WWE would have done the one-day title reign to Dom.

Jey Uso came out to celebrate and Sami Zayn joined him. I was afraid that Sami was going to turn heel on Jey the entire time they were out there, but it did not happen. I do not want heel Sami. He is just too good of a babyface.

Gunther took this celebration badly as he was there after the commercial, confronting Michael Cole for comments Cole had made. He put Michael in the sleeper, but Pat McAfee broke it up. Then, Gunther grabbed Pat and choked him out while a bunch of security and backstage people tried to get him to stop. Pat sold this like he had been nearly killed.

Bron Breakker joined up with Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman and they destroyed CM Punk and Roman Reigns as the show went off the air.

The X-Files S9 E4

Posted on by

Spoilers

“4-D”

The multiverse comes to the X-Files.

This was an interesting and confusing episode as it started off with Monica Reyes having her throat cut, and Doggett getting shot, but returned from commercial with Monica at home and Doggett there with her.

Skinner called her and told her that Doggett had been shot.

How many times does Doggett die in this series? This is at least the second time.

Monica Reyes came up with the theory from out of nowhere. It was the kind of theory that Fox Mulder would have pulled out.

This was an interesting idea but the overall execution was at best okay.

The Last of Us S2 E2

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Through the Valley”

I can’t believe it.

I was aware of Joel’s fate in general from the video game, but I knew no specifics. So as this was being set up, I was in denial. I was sure that they had planned on extending Pedro Pascal’s part longer into season two because of how huge of a star he had become.

Nope. Episode two and Joel is dead.

Honestly, right up until the end, before Abby drove that broken golf club into Joel’s neck, I thought he was getting out of it, somehow. I never played the game so I was unaware that this was setting up a scene that was straight out of the game.

Ellie held on the ground, screaming for mercy for the man who was like a father to her was heartbreaking, and I know that there are extenuating circumstances behind the vengeance of Abby, but I want her dead… just so dead.

Joel had saved her life earlier in the episode as she had been chased by the Infected and was about to be caught when Joel appeared from nowhere to stop it. The whole chase scene with Abby and the Infected, as well as the crawling beneath the collapsing fence, was just suspenseful.

Before this tragic event, the Infected crashing into the city and causing such a tremendous amount of loss. The standoff with Tommy and the Bloater was intense as you get on TV. I thought Tommy was a goner, but he was able to make it through, thankfully.

Bella Ramsey was amazing in this episode. They are absolutely setting up Ellie and Abby as similar characters for future face off. Historically, heroes and villains are like the other side of the same coin. This feels like the show is building a hero/villain archetype.

Wrestlemania 41 Weekend: Night Two

Posted on by

Night Two of Wrestlemania 41 was considerably stronger than night one. There may not have been anything quite like Punk-Rollins-Reigns match, but there were a couple that came close.

John Cena won his 17th championship when he defeated Cody Rhodes with help from Travis Scott and by hitting Cody with the title.

The crowd in Las Vegas was much better tonight than they were Saturday. They were in the matches all night. However, some of their reactions were weird. They cheered for Cena. They booed Cody. They cheered wildly when Dom Mysterio became the new Intercontinental Champion. The crowd was bizarre.

The triple threat match with Bianca-Rhea and Iyo Sky was an amazing match to kick off the show. Iyo won and retained, and I am so happy about that. She had been shown as a third wheel of the build for this match and it seemed as if there was a lot of disrespect for Iyo. The crowd did love her, and her big victory was awesome. This is in the conversation for Match of the Year when December comes around.

I am also happy Drew McIntyre won the Street fight with Damian Priest. However, it looked liek Damian was injured. They apparently carted him off after the match, off camera.

Logan Paul defeated AJ Styles cleanly (for the most part). That was a sad moment of the night, though it was a really strong match.

Somebody must have said his name… because Joe Hendry answered the Randy Orton challenge. Of course, the TNA World Champion was defeated by the RKO, but Joe Hendry got a really great response from the crowd. It was short and sweet, but it was fun. Randy liked Joe Hendy’s theme song too, you could tell.

Becky Lynch returned as Lyra Valkyria’s partner and they became WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions by defeating Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez.

I had heard some rumors that they might be considering putting the IC title on Dominik Mysterio, but I never thought they would do it. Yet, it happened when he hit a frog splash on Finn Balor. Bron Breakker was not involved in the final, and he looked like a phenomenon during this match.

The whole cheering Dirty Dom blows my mind. I do not know where it came from. Same way the boos for Cody seemed to just materialize.

Night two was really great.

Best matches of the weekend (Not necessarily in this order)

  1. Rollins vs. Punk vs. Reigns
  2. Oba Femi vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Trick Williams
  3. Rhea vs. Iyo vs. Bianca

What We Do in the Shadows S1 E10

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Ancestry”

The first season of What We Do in the Shadows wrapped up with episode 10 called “Ancestry.” Guillermo does some DNA testing on the vampires and himself to see what their ancestry would be. Guillermo discovered some interesting facts.

One, Nandor had 200,000 living descendants. This included one living descendant in Staten island. Nandor wanted to go see her and she turned out to be 94 years old. The sight of Nandor floating outside her window led directly to her death.

And two, that Guillermo was a descendant of Van Helsing, the well-know vampire killer, leading Guillermo to question everything about his life. Especially since he “accidentally” killed two vampires in the recent episodes. The idea that Guillermo, Nandor’s familiar is actually related to Van Helsing is a really funny idea.

What was also funny was how Nandor, Laszlo, and Nadja, along with Colin, attended Nandor’s granddaughter’s funeral… inside a church. The vampires were in the back literally smoking and catching on fire. When Nandor sent Guillermo for water to put him out, he accidentally brought holy water, which burned him all the more.

The first season of What We Do in the Shadows was really funny and enjoyable. I do believe, moving forward with this show, I will be doing a binge day for the remaining five season, where I take the entire season and binge them in a day, doing a wrap up write-up at the end of the season.